Pipe straightener



; April 5, 1927; I

.1. B. GOCKE ET AL PIPE STRAIGHTENER' Fild Aug. 11.- 1924 IN VEN TORS A TTORNEY.

Patented Apr. 5,1927.

UNITED STATES 1. 23. 05 PATENT oFFicE.

JAMES B. GOGKE AND CHARLES F. DE CORSE, OF LOS AiNGELES, CALIFORNIA; SAID DE consn assrenoa T0 sar eocxn.

PIPE STRAIGHTENER.

Application filed August 11, 1924. Serial No. 731,376.

The present invention relates to the art of removing indentations and like irregularities from pipe and casing and other- Wise restoring them to original form.

6 The principal object of our invention is to provide improved method and means for removing indentations rapidly and easily, preferablyso that one man may do the work without the aid of power or heat. It will 10 be understood in the consideration of our invention, that the practice now followed is quite tedious and expensive in all its forms. The act of driving wedges, balls and the like through pipe and casing lengths is laborious and inaccurate. Particularly in the case of oil well casing, a slight indentation may render the casing unfitted for use. To restore an indented length of casing it is important, in remov- 2 ing the dent, that the metal be returned to orlgmal position without otherwise alter ing the arrangement of adjacent metal and without weakening or drawing the metal previously distorted. j i I It is, therefore, another and important object of the invention to provide for returning the indented portion to a true round form without exerting a too concentrated force on adjacent portions of the casing.

Another object of the invention is to pro vide simple and dependable meanswhere by the required force may be applied slowly,

and accurately, and at a trol of the operator.

Another object of the invention is to provide for removing indentations from pipe regardless of the distance from one eiid of the pipe to the indentation. Another-object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which may be easily and quickly applied to or removed from the pipe bein treated.

rate under the con- Still ot er objects and advantages of our invention will appear hereinafter and will be better understood by virtue of the order in which they occur. I

Briefly stated our method consists in placing within the pipe, at the point to be .oorrected, two or more members or shoes having outer curved or arcuate surfaces conforming to the normal contour of the inner perimeter of the pipe. In a complete outfit there will be provided 'a plurality of sets of shoes so that various standard sizes 5 of pipe may be treated. In conformity with our invention, one shoe (it is preferable to employ only two shoes) is of a considerably greater area than the other shoe, so that any force acting upon the shoes will distribute itself from the larger shoe over a considerable area, We provide means for holding the shoes oppositely and co-axially alined so that when the smaller shoe is placed directly under the indentation the larger shoe will rest on that portion of the pipe wall lying opposite to the indented portion. It will be apparent now that by forcing the shoes away from each other the shoe of smaller area will begin to force the depressed metal outwardly while the other shoe will have no effect on the pipe because of the fact that the force which might act through the lower shoe is'resisted'by being section thereof.

Figure 3 is a View in section seen on a line 3-3 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a view in section seen on a lme 44 of Figure 3.

The shoes which comprise a set of two ing pins 8 for a purpose'apparent hereinafter. We refer to the shoe 6 as being the upper shoe merely to identify it in thedrawings, it being understood that in usin the device being described it is prefe'rab e to have the ipe horizontally disposed with the smaller s 0e uppermost. However, it Wlll he understood that the device may be used with the pipe in any position, even when vertically suspended in' the boreof a well.

As-a powerful and convenient means for forcin the shoes apart while holding them suitabl y positioned within the bore of a pipe, such as 9, we provide a hydraulic cylinder member and a plun er or ram '11 which is'a workin fit in sai cylinder. In conjunction there is provided a lon bar 12 of .sufiicientlength to extend from t e point where the shoes are to be operated to a point externally of the pipe. Said bar should be hollow to provide for light weight and may be a length of smaller diametered pipe. The principal requirement. for the ,bar for all usual workin urposes, is that it be.ri d and non-revol u 1 attached tothe "cylin er,

r as by welding at 13, so that the shoes may be revolved to accurately position-the upper cup 14 so that the space 15 below is pressure The plunger is provided with a packing tight, and the cylinder is rovidedwith a drilled hole 16' to admit fiiiid to space 15 from a high pressure fluid tube 17. Said tube is arranged parallel with the bar and is preferably external, theredf.

The c linder is formed with a circular inte ral bottom flange 18; having a flat under sur ace 19. The lower shoe, as well as the other sizes of bottom shoes (not shown) is provided with a circular depression 20 into which the flanged portion of the cylinder may fit. The shoe is provided with two lugs 21 and 22, lug 22 being fixed and lug 21 beingrevoluble on the plate of the shoe.

Thereby the lower shoe may be detachably secured to the c linder member with the lugs -1n'der. the plunger, which is to the plunger while the plunger is held non-revolubly in the cylinder.' In attaching the lower shoe 7 to the cylinder, and the bar 12 to the c linder the shoe 7 is accuratel aligned on'gitudinally with the bar other parts of 12. us, when the bar 12-is centered in a large pipe, suchas 9, there is excellent assur ance that the shoe 7 is, properly aligned. The pins 23 and 8 are so positioned that the longitudinal axis ofboth the shoes 6 and 7 are accurately ali ed with each other and with the longitudinal axis of the bar 12. f 'In order to provide for high fluid presaurefto force the shoes apart while they are within, a pipe, we provide a pum 26. Preferably the. umpis connected wit the e device to provide a complete unit-by which the shoes may be hydraulically operated within a pipe by lpressure producing means located externa y of the ipe. e pump includes a flat base 27 and a body 28, the latter being, in this embodiment, a block of steel welded to the base. Said body is provided with a vertical bore 30 intersected by a transversesuction bpre 31 and a similar discharge bore 32. The vertical bore is fitted with a small diameter plunger 33 and the transverse bores are provided with ball checks 34 and 35, respect-ively, to provide for drawing oil from a x small reservoir 36 and discharging same into the pressure line at high pressure. The pump body is located about centrally of the base longitudinally while at the forward end of the base there is welded a common T fitting 37. The bar or pipe, which connects the hydraulic press with the pump, is permanently attached to the fitting so that all 7 parts may be handled as a single unit. The plunger is provided with a packing glland 38 and said plunger is increased in as at 39 and pivotally connects with a pump lever 40. as at 4l. The handle end 42 of the lever is extended rearwardly a considerable distance to rovide powerful leverage. The forward end 43 ,of the lever is pivotally connected as at 44uto a link 45. The T is proameter vided with a transverse pin 46 which provides an anchor for the link, the latter be? ing provided with an aperture 47 through avhieh the pin extends.

From the suction bore a short suction line 48 leads to the reservoir, while the discharge line is connected directly with the discharge bore. A by-pass line 49 is provided which is connected with the pressure line by a T 50 and to the suction line by another T 51.

A valve 52 is provided-in said by-pass line.

When the valve is open the pump will be incapable of building up a fluid pressure in the high pressure line because the fluid will take the line of least'resistance and flow backto the reservoir.

The operation of the embodiment just described, and themanner in which our im- -5 proved method is carried outwill be better understood from the following: A length of casing 9 possesses an indentation 54 which it is desired to remove by forcing the metal The correct size back to original position. of upper and lower shoe is selected and fitted to the plunger and cylinder respective l tziched may be handled as a single unit and advanced into the casing. Preferabl casing isarranged so that the identation is uppermost but in case it is not convenient to have the casing so positioned, then the device. may be turned, after it is in the pipe, to bring the lower shoe directly under the indented portion. The rigid-pipe connecting Now the entire device with the shoe atthe v the shoes with the pump, which is always P kept externally accurately PQSItiODiD the shoes and for retracting same from the casing when the job' is finished. Y

of the casing, provides fornesaeos.

With the shoes correctly located the pump lever ismanipulated and slowly oil is pumpediinto the cylinder to raise the pressure. The long pump lever in conjunction with the small plunger rovides for producing very high by raulic pressures.

' Slowly, accuratelfi, and with great force, the

shoes are gradua moved away from each other, relatively. fThe lower shoe is of such area in contact with the pipe that it merely provides a fixed base against which-the pressure is exerted to force the smaller shoe up ward The pump is operated until they are the correct'dlstance apart to return the metal to original contour. To relieve thepressure the valve'in the by-pass line is opened and the fluid will flow back to the reservoir and entire device may casing.

It will be apparent now that with our method and suitable means pipe and easing may be repaired, regardless of location.

Heav casingsections maybe treated even in in at erwise inconvenient positions such as ,on the: ound or on a rack, and, in fact, any

lace w ascribed.

enlarging ere it is possible to insert the device tlon and have described a specific embodiment of means for carryin out our invention, we do not limit ourse ves thereto, nor do we limit ourselves to any construction or arrangement of parts for same, and we may alter the construction and arrangement of parts 'as occasion seems to.require without the scope of the present invention within t e appended claim.

We claim as our invention:

In adevice of the character described, a pump body a rigid rod projecting from said ody, a cylinder rigidly fixed to the outer end of said rod, a; convex shoe rigidly atp tached at the lower end of said cylinder with permit the upper shoe to-descend so that the be withdrawn from the" its longitudinal axiszparalleling'the longitudinal axis of the rod, a'piston reciprocal in said cylinder, means carried by the c linder to prevent'the piston from turning t arein, and a convex shoe non-revolu'bly fixed to the up er end of the piston; said means actto old the upper shoe so that its longitu inal axis arallels the longitudinal axis of the lower s be.

JAMES B. GOCKE.

CHARLES F. DECORSE. 

